Agrobiodiversity of Vegetable Crops: Aspect, Needs, and Future Perspectives

Annual Plant Reviews Online 2019 Volume 2
Issue 1, February 2019
Angelo Signore

Angelo Signore

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

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Massimiliano Renna

Massimiliano Renna

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

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Pietro Santamaria

Pietro Santamaria

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

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First published: 20 February 2019
Citations: 14

Abstract

Agrobiodiversity represents biodiversity of the agro-ecosystems, and it plays a fundamental role in maintaining the resilience of crops. Vegetables are an important commodity with diversity at several levels such as organ consumed, grade of transformation after harvesting, etc. However, the modern cultivars, by decreasing their agrobiodiversity exhibit, reduced resilience to pests and climatic changes and may, in several cases, show lower levels of bioactive compounds. Moreover, agrobiodiversity should not be evaluated per se, but also the underlying services beneath it should be carefully taken into account. To overcome such problems, a reappraisal of agrobiodiversity is essential, as it allows the ‘genetic bottleneck’ induced by modern varieties to be expanded and an increased range of vegetable products made available. In this article, after some considerations of the importance of vegetables and their distribution across the world, we discuss how agrobiodiversity has decreased, mainly due to the adoption of modern varieties, and suggest some innovative use of ‘novel’ vegetable products with an added value for human health and wellness.

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